jason (FMA Admin)

Mini Profile

Fine Steps started out as a solo recording project from Julian Elorduy, drummer of the Mayyors and leader of the Standard Tribesmen. We had the chance to witness Mayyors tear the roof off WFMU's SXSW showcase a couple years back (listen here). Standard Tribesmen took a slightly more traditional approach to their blown-out garage-punk judging by the lone 7" on Mt St Mtn released before the group splintered.

The early Fine Steps home recordings sound a bit like John Dwyer's pre Oh Sees experiments, some sort of west coat OCS transitional moment on the porch. I picked out a couple tracks below. "Our Love is Strange" comes from Muff On Both Sides. If it was in fact run through two Big Muff distortion pedals, those pedals must have had the gain knob turned down low. "I Know This is Crazy" off Crutches echoes the Pacific Northwest sounds of Karl Blau.

Hopefully all of these sketches will get fleshed out more in future times. For now, "Tomorrow for All of Today" hits that spot. It's off a forthcoming LP (label TBA) recorded with a 5-piece Fine Steps band featuring two members of harmonizing phased-out garage melters Ganglians. I haven't heard the rest of the album, but I have heard that it was mixed by Robbie Moncrieff, which bodes well; he's also collaborated with the likes of Marnie Stern, and his production for Dirty Projectors's Bitte Orca fueled some of his own fantastic releases as Raleigh Moncrief.